Eat Well The YoChee Way: The Easy and Delicious Way to Cut Fat and Calories with Natural YoChee [Yogurt Cheese]

YoChee, or yogurt cheese, is a concentrated form of yogurt used in cooking and baking that you can make at home with the right yogurt and some very simple steps. Eat Well The YoChee Way: Guide and 275 Recipes guides the reader through making YoChee and gives a variety of ways you can use the thickened, creamy substance to replace more fatty, creamy ingredients in recipes such as spreads, breads, casseroles, pastas, desserts and breakfast recipes.I am a yogurt fanatic, just ask my college roommates. It was the joke in our apartment that we could always count on one thing in the fridge (and surprisingly for college students it wasn't beer) -- Dana's yogurt. So I was excited to try making YoChee. Yogurt has numerous health properties associated with it, including live and active yogurt cultures that promote healthy digestion and the body's yeast fighting powers, high amounts of calcium and a vegetarian source of high-quality protein with much less fat than found in other dairy products such as cheeses.I was surprised to read that YoChee (in a variety of other names) has been used in Middle Eastern cooking for generations. This gave me confidence that, if it's been made for generations, it must be easy enough to prepare. But the instructions page seems a bit more complicated than the actual process of making YoChee turned out to be. And a mention of the "specially designed draining device" that the reader can buy from the YoChee.com website made me wonder if I could make this at home without buying the recommended equipment.Turns out, making YoChee was quite simple. It's as easy as buying a yogurt without any thickening agents, stabilizers, gelatin or gums in it (Dannon Plain contains milk only and is relatively inexpensive), then setting a cone wire coffee filter on top of a jar, filling it with Yogurt and allowing the watery substance leak out of the yogurt for a number of hours (mine sat for about six to eight hours). You can also use a colander and cheesecloth set over a bowl, although I can imagine scraping the YoChee out of the cheesecloth may be messy. The end results looks like a whole-milk sour cream or a cream cheese.I used the YoChee to make sweet biscuits, which were very good. The YoChee took the place of a shortening or butter ingredient. With 7 grams of protein per biscuit, 150 mg of calcium and less than one gram of saturated fat, this recipe trumps any traditional biscuit recipe in health properties and tastes just as flavorful and heartier than the average biscuit.Other recipes I'd like to try with my next batch of YoChee include a Quick Creamy Bean Stew, Eggplant and Potato Curry, Superior Spinach Dip, YoChee Pesto and a frozen dessert snack "cube" called Cocoa Chunks that the book says you can store in the freezer and "pop in your mouth when the mood hits."Almost any recipe that uses butter, cream cheese, sour cream or mayonnaise appears to be able use YoChee as a healthy substitute to these high fat ingredients. I recommend trying YoChee and reading this book to yogurt lovers, dairy consuming vegetarians, people with lactose intolerance or anyone who wants to lower their fat intake while increasing their intake of calcium, protein and live active yogurt cultures.The book says you can use cow, goat, sheep or soy yogurt. However, all the recipes in the book were tested with only cow's milk. In my own yogurt quest over the years, I've tried soy yogurt and not liked it because it felt too "gummy" to me, but that could be because I tried a brand with gums or thickeners in it, which is a no-no for making YoChee. Perhaps there's a soy yogurt brand out there without any of those additives in it, and then it would work fine. --D.Anderson-Villamagna

You don't need this cookbook to add "YoChee" to your diet.I bought the Donvier yogurt drainer and I am very happy with it, but I wish I had selected one of the other yogurt cookbooks on amazon to go with it. I have tried 4 recipes so far (and leafed through the whole book) and all of the recipes needed minor to considerable tinkering with the amounts and sometimes several additional ingredients to be both tasty and interesting. Take the spinach dip, for example. If memory serves, it calls for a 10 oz. package of frozen spinach with 1 1/2 cups of yochee. I used the 16 oz. package of spinach that was in my freezer with 1 c. of yochee and this made a perfectly acceptable dip texture. (I did add 1/4 c of mayo though which really improved the flavor) I also added fresh garlic and some additional seasoning to the original recipe. The result was delicious and I will definitely be making my version of the dip for years to come.Yochee is a good way to reduce fat and add protein and vitamins to your diet. However, there are claims made in this book that I just haven't found to be true. Mixing yochee with peanut butter or butter does *not* make a mixture that still tastes like peanut butter or butter. (no matter how long I drain the yogurt, it still tastes like sour peanut butter - ick)Yochee does make an excellent sandwich or bagel spread with diced veggies and seasonings added, and it really can replace sour cream beautifully.

This book is excellent if you are new to yochee, and if you aren't, there are plenty of ideas to consider. While one reviewer gave it three stars because she had to make adjustments for personal taste, etc., I found the ideas to be great. In fact, I recommended this book to my son who recently discovered his son has many allergies. I bought them a yogurt maker specifically for yochee after reading this book.I think that changing recipes, tweaking them, is what it's all about, and I use cookbooks for new ideas. But I was pleasantly surprised when I got this book because I could recommend it to my son; it fit his needs very well. It has also enlightened me, a long time yogurt maker, and given me new ideas. As to the butter, I use butter flavoring in mine and it is yummy, through in some yellow food coloring and some will never know.If you like yogurt, this book is one great find.

This is a great cookbook. Unlike some health foods, yochee is very easy to make and thus easy to keep around all the time. We use it instead of sour cream, cream cheese, and whipped cream. Our dairy product ingredients were getting very confusing with some family members preferring soy milk and some with lacteous intolerance; but, we all eat (and enjoy!) yochee. This cookbook includes a wide variety of recipes that are quick and easy. Most require a relatively small number of ingredients that we keep on hand anyway. We are very health food conscious in our family and I collect cookbooks. This one is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

I bought "Eat Well the Yochee Way" along with a basic model Donvier brand Yogurt Cheese Maker. The recipes are great, a combination of basic spreads and dips and also some more ambitious uses of easy-to-make, healthy, and delicious yogurt cheese!If you haven't made yochee before, don't hesitate. . . It's easy to make, and the recipes are a good start for beginner and intermediate skilled cooks. For more experienced cooks, the recipes work also, allowing me to experiment with yochee uses and already giving me some good ideas for how I may substitute yogurt cheese in my own favorite recipes.

If half of the recipes here turn out, this book will be well worth the money. If the soy yogurt works, this will be an astounding tool toward a better lifestyle.

It's always handy when starting something new to have good, no-nonsense guidance and that is what this small book is. It gives enough recipes for sweet and savoury dishes to tempt the reader into trying the various ways to use the yochee (strained yogurt) and to go on and experiment to find personal tastes of their own. It also gives a fair amount of interesting information on the health benefits obtained from making and useing yochee. I am pleased I bought it and would certainly recommend it to anyone going down this particular route.

Really glad I discovered how to make "Yochee", it's so versatile - can be sweet or savoury & of course it's good for you (as long as you don't add naughty things to it!). I make mine from homemade soya yogurt. Brilliant!

very good easy to follow instructions